CPU vs Graphics Processor

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I''m still learning the Win32 API, so this question is just out of interest for now. I know games nowadays rely very much on graphics cards with their own processors to help do graphics-specific calculations, etc. How (and when) is it decided what gets processed where? Is it at compile time, or at runtime? Also, is it ever possible to use the graphics card''s processor to work on non-graphics specific stuff (if it''s not busy, etc...)

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Generally speaking, it must be decided what gets processed by the graphics card at runtime since when the program is being constructed it is not known what graphics hardware is available in all of the machines that the code could be asked to run on. At runtime, DX interrogates the capabilities of the available hardware then makes a decision on what can be done in hardware. Don''t know how to hook into the graphics processor yourself - but it will be possible - it''s only knowing how!